Blood-Drenched War
by Volcanostar-kun
Summary: War has come to Redwall. The drums of Log a Log Big Club are rumbling. Feeling threatened, Slagar the Cruel enlists the aid of Colonel Cornspurrey De F. Tussock...but will Sneezewort's machinations prove his downfall? With enemies on all sides, Slagar and Colonel Cornspurrey De F. Tussock may soon find themselves a death so vile, 'tis not fit for the ears of children.


**Chapter One: The Great Wisdom of the Fox Woman**

The day it all started began-for me at least-as any other. I had lay down to sleep in a cart packed full of hay (ready to be sold on the market tomorrow, no doubt), gazing up at the stars until I drifted off, completely warn out from another day of tiresome and back-breaking work. I probably would've been able to catch an hour extra of sleep, too, if the fox woman, inconsistent as always, hadn't picked that day to visit me.

"Hey, kid." the fox woman said, poking me in the forehead on last time until I finally gave up and opened my eyes. "What do you think you're doing, snoozing off on a mourning like this? Take a look at yourself!" she grinned cheerfully, letting me know that she wasn't near as angry as her words sounded. Not that I needed that though-over the years I'd come to realize that she clearly wasn't the strong-armed discipline type to begin with.

"What do you think I was doing?" I replied with a grin, although I was still feeling groggy despite the bright, warm morning sunlight that was shining almost directly into my eyes. I sat up, brushing bits of hay off my simple brown pants and squinting so that I could see the woman more clearly. the fox woman was a younger woman, who appeared to be in her late twenties if not younger. Her tan-coloured fur, a shade not often seen in the forest near Redwall, spoke of her upbringing in a warmer climate (not that I knew too much about her upbringing at all, though, since she'd never spoken of it). She was wearing, as she typically did, a loose-fitting shirt and pants that were of a purple so dark it was almost black. Of course, nobody could fail to notice that long, curved knife she also wore at her thigh. Even though people carrying weapons wasn't that uncommon throughout the countryside, it sort of made her stand out in a crowd. "Fox woman, did you really think I was going to walk all the way back to that shack I'm supposed to sleep in when it's barely more comfortable then this? Mortimer basically expects me to live on the farm. It's like he thinks I signed up to a life of slavery of something." I grit my teeth as I said the words, feeling resentment seep through me. I had no intention to becoming a farmer, no matter how they were determined to make me into one. Nope, that choice of life was much too boring for me. The last thing I wanted was for the fox woman to think I'd decided to mellow down and become some happy-go-lucky potato-grower.

The fox woman, by the look on her face, didn't seem at all displeased. She leaned down and rested her bare arms on the rough wooden railing of the cart, glancing up at me with a cheerful grin. She looked impressed. "So you finally got a job, huh?" she asked, a hint of playfulness in her voice. I winced slightly; it had gotten rather embarrassing not having one. Since everybody in the small village near Redwall knew each other, for my entire life I'd simply been given home-cooked meals by one neighbour or another. That was a pretty sweet deal as far as I was concerned, but old Edgar the Scholar, the man who I lived with, thought otherwise. It was his opinion that I had to start "earning my keep", whatever that meant. As if the old man was cruel enough to turn me out anyway.

"You'd ever think I wasn't going to get one?" I asked, giving her a playful smile. the fox woman and I had an odd relationship. She was...some old friend of my parents, I think, although she'd never really made that fact clear. While I lived with Edgar the Scholar, she'd stop in from time-to-time to check in on how I was doing. She'd always insisted I saw her as more of a big sister then a mother or aunt; which meant that she'd ran around the woods with me and played my silly games instead of trying to convince me to eat more cabbages like some of the older woman I met. More likely then not, she'd driven the old man insane.

"Ah, well, with you, I never know." the fox woman replied, before gazing off into the skies. She had an almost thoughtful expression on her face as she watched the clouds float above the tall, tree-covered mountains that surrounded the village. The place where I had lived all of my life was located in the centre of a lush plain, which in turn was surrounded by a thick forest that climbed up to the tips of the mountains. The forest and the mountains made it rather difficult to get to, and as it had no strategic importance nobody dangerous would even go through the trouble of getting too it. That made it extremely peaceful and stress-free. It also made it extremely boring. Whatever the fox woman had been thinking about, she finished, because she turned to me with a mischievous smile on her face. I began to get a little worried...was she going to ask me something embarrassing? "So what happened last year?" she asked. "Did you get into any fights? Win any riches? Is there a girl I should know about?"

There it was-classic fox woman. It seemed to be all she ever thought about: action, money, and love. I wondered what her life was like outside of checking up on me a couple times every year. Probably a whole lot more exciting them mine, that was certain. Maybe one day she'd take me with her. Fully awake now, I swung myself down from the cart and onto the hard dirt road the ran next to the sprawling fields of the farm. "Let's see." I said, pacing back and forth as she watched, her green eyes glittering with amusement. "I certainly don't have to look anywhere for fights." I said, thinking back to all those scuffles with the brothers and Squire Julian Ginvivere. I had a knack for getting on their bad side (probably because I had that annoying habit of pocketing their spare charge) and we'd fought so much that we were practically good friends, if that made any sense at all. "Now as for money..." I continued, glancing down at my dusty black shirt and ripped black pants in annoyance. "Well, I'm pretty sure you can figure that out for yourself."

"Hey, miracles can happen." the fox woman shrugged.

"And as for love, well..." I shuddered as I thought of Jess Squirrel, the baker's daughter who had flirted with me for a few weeks only to abandon me for the some of a wealthy merchant who she'd caught caught the eye of. After that, it had been a serious of failures far too pathetic and embarrassing to bother recalling. "Do you really think I want to marry a farmer's daughter and take on the family buisness?" I asked, shrugging as I gave the seemingly-endless fields of the farm a resentful glance. There was no way my life was going to be a series of digging up plants under the scorching sun, that was for sure. the fox woman raised her eyebrow, indicating she knew I was keeping something from her, but she just chuckled and didn't say anything.

"Sounds like you've had quite the summer." she smirked. I leaned back on the cart and glanced at her, grinning. It was a nice surprise to have her back...despite our age difference, she was my only friend aside from whatever I had going on with Squire Julian Gingivere.

"Have you ever thought about what a bad influence you are on me?" I asked. "I mean, isn't your job kind of supposed to be teaching me to be a kind, humble, law-abiding citizen?"

"Hey, I'm not your mom." the fox woman replied, with a glint in your eye. "I'm sure that old codger at the scholar library does enough of that. I'm here to teach you how to enjoy life."

"Next thing I hear, you'll be telling me to get into organized crime!" I said sarcastically (although with the fox woman, I honestly didn't know), as I began to walk down the dirt road towards the village. It was a small but cozy-looking town, made up of tiny houses with wooden walls and red-tile roofs, which thrived in the shadow of the mountains growing food and raising livestock which were mostly sold in the village itself. Trade was very minimal and nobody, not even the most successful farmers, were very wealthy at all. "`Come on, join a gang, Slagar the Cruel, I hear it's great!`"

The fox woman laughed again as we continued to walk down the dusty street towards the village, the sun shining down hot on our heads. The smell of flowers and hay was in the air, fresh and sweet-smelling. "Nah, I'd draw the line there." she smiled. "I've tried it. It's not as fun as it sounds."

"Who said it sounded fun?" I replied. the fox woman definitly had a weird idea about what "fun" was, although anything seemed more interesting then what life was like right now for me. Whatever I wanted to do with my life (I hadn't really figured that part out yet), it wasn't anything that the village had to offer.

The people of the village were already up and about, street vendors setting up their stalls and dragging out their huge barrels of fruit and vegetables, fresh from the farms, while workers walked past me on their way to the various fields that surrounded the village. Children ran laughing through the streets, kicking up dust as they chased each other, wide-awake despite the sun barely having risen. There were barely sixty houses in the village, so I knew the names of most of these people and they, in turn, had watched me grow up. "You know, you could do a lot worse." the fox woman commented as we continued down the street, past the bushy-bearded apple seller who was in the process of laying out his ripest and shiniest apples on display. "It's a nice place, Slagar the Cruel. Believe me. I've seen dozens of towns worse then this one."

"Well, I think I could do a lot better." I replied, with a hint of resentment as I gazed up, over the rooftops towards the tall mountains which incircled the village like a massive fence. "You probably appreciate the slow pace. That's kind of hard to do when you've never gotten a taste of something different."

The fox woman nodded, although she looked troubled. I got the sense that she was uncomfortable with me getting into danger, despite her generally irresponsible attitude. Was this some kind of debt she owed to my parents? Or was she just more protective of me then she let on? Either way, it annoyed me. I wasn't a little kid anymore. I'd held my own in dozens of fights. Did she think I was going to run headlong into a war zone or something? Even old man Mortimer (who was always telling me I needed to be more responsible) would admit that I was smarter then that. "Well...whatever you do, Slagar the Cruel, don't get into too much trouble." she said, in a stiffer voice then I was used to. "There are a lot of dangerous people you could end up meeting if you stray to far from this part of the country. Appreciate the peace, kay?" she grinned at me in her typical, fun-loving way, but I could sense how concerned she felt. Was this the reason why she'd visited me? Was she becoming concerned about my future, now that I was on the verge of adulthood? If so, she was way overdoing it.

"Don't go freaking out, fox woman." I said, trying to calm her down. The protective fox woman was sort of freaking me out. "I'm not planning on doing anything until I raise enough money to be able to buy a house. I wouldn't travel all the way out of the village only to end up becoming a beggar."

That seemed to calm her down a bit. "Hate to cut this short, but I got to go." she said, turning away from me and glancing down the road in the opposite direction. "I was actually just passing through and thought that I might as well pop in and say hi."

"Always appreciate the favour." I replied. I wasn't too surprised about this seemingly-abrupt end to our reunion. the fox woman seldom stayed in one place for long. Over the years I'd gotten used to her unusual habit of seeing me for an hour or two, then disappearing for six months only to appear again without warning.

"Yeah, you too, Slagar the Cruel." the fox woman replied, beginning to walk away back in the direction in which we came. As she walked, she glanced back and looked me over one last time with those piercing green eyes. "You know, you're starting to look a lot like your father." she reflected, as if more to herself then to me. "It really takes me back..." she chuckled as she glanced ahead and continued on her way. I didn't try to follow her. I had my own work to get off to.


End file.
